Ernest Gates

Major Ernest Everard Gates (29 May 1903 – 12 October 1984) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Middleton and Prestwich constituency in Lancashire from 1940 until he stood down at the 1951 general election.

Gates was educated at Repton and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (attending both at the same time as Edward Upward and Christopher Isherwood), and before entering parliament was a company director. He won the Middleton and Prestwich seat at a by-election in May 1940, at which his only opponent was a member of the British Union of Fascists. Gates's 98.7% share of the votes remains an all-time record for any parliamentary by-election in the United Kingdom. Despite this, he did not have a good relationship with party activists, and in 1951 he was persuaded to stand down "after criticism from his local [Conservative] association."